Dissolution of the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991 by declaration № 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.[1] This declaration acknowledged the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union following the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. On the previous day, 25 December 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, declaring his office extinct, and handed over the Soviet nuclear missile launching codes to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. That same evening at 7:32 P.M. the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin and replaced with the Russian tricolor.[2] The dissolution of the world's first and largest Communist state also marked an end to the Cold War.

End of the cold warThe Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to the end of decades-long hostility between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, which had been the defining feature of the Cold War.

In the countries of the former USSR, the outcomes of the dissolution were mixed. Only the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia established fully democratic systems of government.[16] Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia, and Moldova have maintained some democratic freedoms, but Belarus, Azerbaijan and the Central Asian republics have for many years had authoritarian rulers.[17] Russia itself underwent a period of political instability and economic decline before reverting to authoritarianism under the presidency of Vladimir Putin[18]

Many former Soviet republics have retained close links with Russia and formed multilateral organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Community, the Union State, the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and the Eurasian Union to enhance economic and security cooperation, and extend greater Russian influence over its former empire.